


Just Stand Here With Me

by historical_allusions



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Getting Together, Light Angst, M/M, lots of hockey talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21583924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/historical_allusions/pseuds/historical_allusions
Summary: Kent hears his soulmate's thoughts. Alexei hears his soulmate's music.Kent's worried this mismatch in abilities means their soul bond isn't meant to be.  And it's not like a bond guarantees a good relationship anyway.Alexei suspects his soulmate is from Vegas after their goal song echoes back in his head during a game. But no matter how hard he looks, he can't seem to pin down exactly who they might be.  All he can do is keep reaching out for his soulmate and hope he hears him back.
Relationships: Alexei "Tater" Mashkov/Kent "Parse" Parson, Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann, Kent "Parse" Parson/Jack Zimmermann
Comments: 45
Kudos: 462





	Just Stand Here With Me

_“Just stand here with me_  
_And love me on purpose,_  
_Cause I’m dying to be seen_  
_And you make me feel worth it”_

Jack lunges at the iHome on his desk to skip the song. The Eagles start to play again and Jack swivels slowly around in his chair. “Seriously, Kent?” he asks. “When did you even have time to download that song? This is supposed to be my study playlist.”

Kent looks over from Jack’s bed where he’s been pretending to work on his math homework for the past forty minutes. Jack glaring at him but Kent isn’t too concerned. “You left your iPod plugged in while you were in the shower.”

Jack groans and rubs his eyes. He’s been working on the same calculus set for the last hour, refusing to ask Kent for help, and Kent honestly doesn’t understand why. They are graduating in a few months and it isn’t like Jack needs to be on honor roll to play in the NHL.

“I’ll get you back for that later,” Jack grumbles but he sounds thankful for a break.

“You could get me back for it now,” Kent offers easily. “Come on, just copy my homework and be done with it already,” he says, passing Jack his completed packet.

“Then I’m not going to know it for the test,” Jack argues but it’s an argument Kent’s heard before and knows how to win.

“Coach is proctoring it. You can copy the test off me too,” Kent shrugs. Jack sighs but he takes the packet anyway.

Kent counts it as a victory when Jack finishes boxing his answers and then looks to the door to make sure it’s locked. Jack reaches over to change the playlist to something other than his study music and Kent just barely keeps from punching the air when he hears the opening notes to _I’m on Fire._

He can’t keep the grin off his face when Jack joins him on the bed and leans in to kiss him. Kent pulls him in easily and lays back against his comforter. Kent isn’t in any rush and lets his hands wander over Jack’s chest and down his back while they lazily make out.

_“Just stand here with me—"_

“Damn it, Kenny!” Jack sighs, reaching over to his desk to change the song again while Kent laughs underneath him.

“I might have added it to more than just your study playlist,” Kent smirks and Jack leans back in to kiss the look off his face.

Later, Kent lays back in Jack’s bed and listens to Jack clean up. He closes his eyes and focuses on to the sound of the sink running in the adjacent bathroom. Jack’s bedroom is bigger than the living room of the house Kent grew up in and it’s still crazy to him that Jack has his own bathroom even though Kent is grateful for the convenience. And the privacy.

Kent is thinking about what they’re going to do after dinner when he hears it.

_“It’s nice to meet you. I’m excited to play for the team.”_

Kent stiffens in Jack’s bed.

“ _It’s nice to meet you. I’m excited to play for the team.”_

Kent closes his eyes tighter and tries to focus on the words as they repeat in his head. _“Can you hear me this time?”_ he asks, thinking clearly about each word.

“ _It’s nice to meet you… I’m excited to play for the team.”_

“Kenny, are you okay?” Jack asks from the doorway. Kent sits up sharply as he feels the words fading from his mind.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Your soulmate again?” Jack asks and Kent shrugs which is all the confirmation Jack needs. He rejoins Kent on the bed and Kent wishes he didn’t look so awkward about it.

“His English is getting better,” Kent tells him.

“…That’s a good sign, right?”

Jack knows Kent is weird about having a soulmate because they don’t match. Kent has heard his soulmate in his head since he was a kid. He was excited when the voice in his head started to practice English because Kent thought it might be a sign his soulmate could hear him too. But whenever Kent tries to reach out to him, whatever he says never makes it to the other side.

“It’s fine. I’m not in any rush to meet him,” Kent says because it is typically what he says when Jack asks about it. He can tell his casual act isn’t going to work much longer though. “Not all of us are lucky enough to have literal poetry printed on us,” he deflects, gesturing to Jack’s hip where Kent knows his words are written.

Kent would never admit it, but he is a little jealous of Jack’s words.

_Remember those walls I built,  
well baby they’re tumbling down_

Jack’s soulmate also has way better handwriting than Kent which he knows shouldn’t bother him but it does. He also suspects Jack’s soulmate is a lefty given the way the text is smudged so much it’s hard to make out all the words. Kent hasn’t shared this particularly theory with Jack. Just like Kent hasn’t shared he’s pretty sure his Russian soulmate is coming to America to play hockey.

“At least I don’t have to think of something artsy to say back,” Kent teases and Jack frowns at him.

“I’m sure he’ll hear you eventually,” Jack tries.

“Zimms, drop it.”

Kent is pretty sure because his soulmate can’t hear him it means they aren’t matched. Unmatched pairs, asymmetric soulmates, have a significantly lower chance of finding each other. Kent knows because he’s looked up the statistics. And if the issue of Cosmo he read in the dentist’s office was to be believed, it also means their bond won’t be as strong. Or worse, it could be unevenly shared. As mental links are generally believed to be stronger, Kent fears it means his soulmate cares less about Kent than Kent cares about him, if he cares about Kent at all.

The last thing Kent wants is an unreciprocated bond. He saw how his parents couldn’t even make a matched bond work. What hope does he have if his soulmate doesn’t even want him?

“Let’s go down for dinner, eh?” Jack says instead. “It should be done soon.”

Kent relaxes once the subject is been dropped and gets off the bed to follow Jack.

Two weeks later, Kent is riding shotgun in Jack’s truck when hears his soulmate sing along to the lyrics to an Eagles song. Kent tries not to roll his eyes as he stumbles over half the words. Normally Kent loves the days when he gets to hear from his soulmate, but Kent desperately tries to convey over the bond that he cannot _stand_ The Eagles. But just like every other time Kent tries to communicate mentally, nothing happens. Kent tries not to let it distract him during practice but Jack has to snap at him to focus during their scrimmage when another pass goes wide and Kent just wishes his soulmate would stop telling him to take it easy.

Kent tries not to find it endearing when his soulmate, who is still working his way through introductions in English, gets all the words right in the chorus.

He’s finishing up his French homework while Jack’s study playlist (minus one song) plays. He hears his soulmate suddenly switch to The Cure and Kent drops his pen.

“You okay?” Jack asks from his desk.

“Yeah I’m fine,” Kent says, turning down the stereo while his soulmate was tries to work out the words to _Friday I’m in Love_.

Jack gives him a look but goes back to his homework while Kent puts together a plan.

For the next week Kent exclusively plays one Linkin Park song. If Jack finds it odd, he doesn’t mention it. Then again, they’re getting to the end of the season and everyone is fixated on the Memorial Cup. If anything, Jack is probably happy Kent stops downloading his weird indie songs onto his iPod when Jack isn’t looking.

Then, Kent’s soulmate, who has only ever listened to Russian music, starts to think about Linkin Park.

The next week Kent changes the song to a Rascal Flats song. And his soulmate follows.

For the next two months, Kent plays one song for a week in different genres from different decades. If his soulmate’s bond is anything like Kent’s it means he won’t be able to hear it the entire time. And every week, his soulmate always ends up thinking about the song. As Rimouski starts to make it deeper in the bracket for the Memorial Cup, his teammates chalk up his new ritual to superstition. It works, because he and Jack play the best hockey of their lives. And Jack doesn’t question it when Kent tells him to stop playing music while they make out.

Kent doesn’t tell Jack that he’s finally figured out how to communicate with his soulmate. In part because Kent still tries talking to him over the bond but music is the only thing that gets any sort of acknowledgement, so Kent was still pretty sure the bond was mismatched. And Kent was being honest when he said he is in no rush to meet his soulmate. He has a good thing going with Jack. He knows that a soulmate doesn’t mean a happy relationship and he and Jack are already pretty happy together.

Kent and Jack win the Memorial Cup together.

Kent crashes into Jack and grabs onto his jersey. “You did it, Zimms! We did it!” he shouts while Jack yells the same thing back.

They celebrate with the team that night. But at the end of the night when it’s finally just the two of them, Kent grips onto Jack’s shoulders and whispers the same thing. “We did it, Zimms. I love you so much.”

Jack kisses him again and mutters something back into Kent’s shoulder but it’s okay, because Kent knows what he means.

And 34 days later, Kent stops listening to music for a while.

_/x\\_

Alexei thinks about his soulmate every day.

He wonders what his soulmate is doing, how he’s feeling. He doesn’t know much about him other than that he might be American, maybe Canadian. All Alexei knows for sure is that his soulmate loves music.

He listens to just about every type. There is pop music and punk music. There are 80’s love ballads and R&B mixtapes. There was a while just before Alexei was drafted when all he’d hear were American country songs and 70s rock. Then there was the strangest month of his life when his soulmate listened to only one song at a time and Alexei scrambled to write down as many of the lyrics as he could understand so he could look them up on the internet.

And then there was just silence.

Alexei worries something happened to his soulmate—that he was hurt or alone. He’d thought moving to America would make their bond stronger because they’d be closer but instead, he goes weeks without hearing a single note of music from inside his head.

If he wasn’t so busy with the NHL, Alexei might have panicked more. He tries to ask some of the guys on the team about it but Alexei wasn’t sure if he’s getting the words right because none of their advice makes any sense.

Then the backup goalie took him aside and Alexei painstakingly explained the situation to him while keeping information about his soulmate as vague as possible. Snowy helps make a playlist of all the songs Alexei knows his soulmate likes so he’ll have something to listen to until he hears his soulmate again. Alexei tried to listen to it so his soulmate would maybe hear him over the bond and know he isn’t alone.

Then, very slowly, Alexei starts to hear him again.

Alexei has plenty of theories about how their bond works, but he suspects he can’t hear every song his soulmate listens to and vice versa. There are days when their connection is stronger and he isn’t really sure why. Distance might be a factor but it varies too much for Alexei to know for sure. He thinks maybe how intently his soulmate listens to a song has something to do with it too.

Then, just as the season is about to start, it’s all music all the time.

For a week in the preseason, Alexei thinks he might actually lose his mind.

Alexei is in the middle of a practice when he hears 90 straight minutes of Panic! At the Disco. Then he’s getting ready for a faceoff and there’s suddenly Katy Perry on repeat in his head. Then he’s just about to fall asleep and _Sandstorm_ starts blasting over the bond and all Alexei can do is roll over in his bed in Providence and scream into his pillow. For the first time in his life, he wishes he had a way to turn down the volume on his soulmate.

As preseason turns into the regular season, the music dials back down again. It eases into something more manageable, heavy on the pop songs with a little variety thrown in. Alexei tries to be patient with his soulmate and reciprocates with a few of his own favorite songs, hoping to hear them echoed back over the bond but they never do. Alexei hopes that, whoever his soulmate is, he knows how much Alexei already cares for them.

Alexei get his first real clue in Las Vegas.

The Falconers and the Aces are two incredibly well-matched teams because, despite Vegas’ flashy skating and underhanded moves, the Falconer’s defense is always there to meet them. While Providence won both their games against the Aces last season, Alexei knows it is in part because Kent Parson and Jeff Troy were out with the flu the first game and the second game happened with the Aces’ starting goalie injured and the backup fresh off a trade to the team.

It’s their first game against an Aces team at full strength and Kent Parson is riding a 20-game point streak with his team burning up the Western Conference. Alexei knows the game will be difficult but he believes in his team.

Both teams hold the game at zero until the last two minutes of the second period. The Falconers have a turnover that takes a bad bounce, gets on Troy’s stick, and he immediately passes it up the ice to Parson. Alexei has to scramble back into position to get in from of him but it’s too late and Parson has his opening. He gets a wrister off one-on-one with Snowy and the puck hits the back of the net.

The stadium erupts into a cheer and Alexei is skating off when he hears it in his head.

_Get up and shake the glitter off your clothes now,  
That’s what you get for waking up in Vegas!_

Alexei whips his head around and feels his grip on his stick go lax. He tries to search the arena because he can hear the song _in his head_ which means his soulmate is hearing it too.

“Tater, you okay?” Thirdy asks, taking him by the shoulder and turning him back to the bench. “Don’t worry, we’ll get ‘em back.”

Alexei doesn’t trust himself to speak and just shakes his head, not sure how to explain it. Thirdy gives him some space on the bench to pull himself together before their next shift.

Alexei doesn’t say anything the rest of the game and he feels the worried look his teammates give him, especially after they win and he knows he should be celebrating. Plenty of the guys offer to take him out to see Vegas but Alexei turns all of them down.

Snowy is waiting for him when he gets back to their hotel room.

“Come on, Tater, what’s going on? You’re not the kind of guy to beat himself up about one goal,” Snowy says from where he’s sitting on Alexei’s bed.

Alexei sighs and falls face first onto the bed. “I think my soul mate was there tonight,” he says into his pillow. “Might be Aces fan. I’m hearing Aces’ goal song a lot.”

“What? Tater, that’s a good thing!” Snowy says, punching him by the shoulder. “I was really worried about you!” Alexei grins a little into the pillow when Snowy lays on top of him but Alexei’s heart is still racing. “I mean, their taste in hockey teams is fucking awful but we can fix that later. You’ll just have to play them our goal song until they figure it out.”

Alexei tries not to think about how Snowy is always so careful to use neutral pronouns when he talks about Alexei’s soulmate. He shifts so he can look at Snowy. It finally feels like he has a direction, somewhere he can search for his soulmate. “I’m a little scared,” he admits.

Snowy punches him in the shoulder again, harder. “You’re a catch, Tater Tot,” he tells him. “Your soulmate doesn’t even know how lucky they are to have you. Now don’t say anything bad about yourself of I’ll have to beat you up for talking shit about my best friend.”

Alexei laughs and takes the pillow he’s lying on to smack Snowy in the side. “Why you have to punch me to say nice thing?” he asks, or at least he tries to but Snowy was already retaliating and escalating with a pillow of his own.

_/x\\_

Alexei fidgets in his locker while their coach goes over the strategy for their game.

At first, he thought that whoever his soulmate is must be an Aces fan because he was at the Las Vegas game. But the next week Alexei hears _Chelsea Daggers_ four times in a row and when he checks the scores, the Aces were shut out by the Blackhawks.

Alexei refines his prediction to someone who works for the team, maybe travels to a few games with them a year. It might be anyone from the trainers to the media coordinators. But as the years go on, the song selection becomes too consistent for someone just tangentially connected to the Aces.

The Aces change their goal song every year. It is one of their many gimmicks as a new team. It became common for Alexei to hear clips of _Vegas Lights_ when Las Vegas switch their song the next season. Alexei thought they might keep it the year they won the Cup, but the Aces kept with tradition and changed it again.

By the start of the 2016-2017 season, Alexei can say with confidence he knows every word to every Aces goal song since he’s been in the NHL. What he didn’t know is who on the Aces his soulmate is, but he’s pretty sure he’s a player.

Or his soulmate is franchise coach Drew Becker who is old enough to be Alexei’s father.

Alexei looks forward to and dreads games against the Aces in equal measure. It doesn’t help that the Falconers are coming up on the end of a rough roadie. They’ve lost four games in regulation and another two in overtime and if Alexei hears the words “Cup Hangover” one more time, he might break his stick.

He tries to focus on his game and ignore the pull he feels to the other side of the ice during warm ups.

Jack taps his stick against Alexei’s skate when they line up for the anthem.

Alexei listens as it echoes back faintly through his soulmate connect and his chest tightens with the confirmation his soulmate is there.

Then the game began and Alexei has his hands full with the Aces offense.

He is on the bench when Kent Parson scores his second goal of the night on the penalty kill and Alexei is subjected to another clip of _Sorry Not Sorry_. Next to him, Jack grinds his teeth through his mouthguard and Alexei knows at least the sentiment is shared.

With five minutes left in the third period, Alexei listens to Parson belt out _“I’m sorry, I’m not sorry!”_ to his tenth career hattrick and Alexei does break his stick on the boards when they leave the ice.

The worst part of these games is that Alexei is reminded he doesn’t actually like any of the players on the Aces, at least not any of the ones he thinks could be his soulmate.

With injuries and trades and the fact that Alexei can’t hear every song is soulmate listens to, it’s hard to pin down exactly which player his might be. Alexei suspects his soulmate might be purposefully hiding his identity because he hasn’t made any progress finding him in years. And every time he thinks he might know who it is, they do something to throw him off.

After the game, he goes to Snowy’s room to try and pace out his frustration.

The past few weeks, the songs had been coming more frequently across the bond. Alexei thought it could be a sign his soulmate wanted to meet him but now he isn’t so sure.

“Okay, talk me through it again,” Snowy says from where he’s stretched out on the floor. “You’re pretty sure he’s a player, right? Why not management?”

“The schedules are all wrong,” Alexei shakes his head. “With the songs, whoever it is goes to too many games.”

“But there are trainers. Press. They go to the games too.”

“For the last six years? I try to look at who they have on staff and people who work for a long time don’t go to every game I hear songs.”

Snowy sighs and arches his back. Alexei winces when he hears something crack but Snowy just shakes it out.

“If it isn’t someone on the staff, who could it be on the team?”

“Maybe Jeff Troy?” Alexei says. In truth, Troy is the most likely candidate. He’s been on the team long enough and he and Alexei have a lot in common as defensemen. “He seems like nice guy, but only dates women. And I think he’s been dating current girlfriend for a few years.”

Snowy hums and Alexei knows what he’s thinking. If Troy is with someone else it explains why he keeps trying to shut Alexei out of their bond.

“Other than Troy, who else has been on the Aces that long?”

“Parson and Stasiuk.”

“Ouch,” Snowy winces and Alexei can only nod in agreement.

On ice, Kent Parson is a force to be reckoned with. Off ice, he strikes Alexei as kind of a douchebag who won’t follow him back on Instagram. And Alexei never pressed Jack about it, but there is some sort of history there Alexei doesn’t know how to navigate. On the other hand, Anton “Scraps” Stasiuk made strong statements against the Russian annexation of his native Crimea and Alexei is pretty sure Stasiuk can no longer travel safely back to his family there. And every time he checks Alexei it feels a little too personal.

“I’ve met Stasiuk a few times. He’s a nice guy as long as you don’t talk politics,” Snowy tries to say, pointedly not addressing the potential of it being Parson or Troy.

Alexei flops back on the bed and feels another trip to Vegas wasted.

_/x\\_

Things get better back in Providence. Not only do the Falconers finally snap their losing streak, but it looks like they’ll be in a comfortable enough spot by the end of the season to not fight it out for a wildcard slot.

Alexei is more than happy to drive out to Samwell with Jack for Bitty’s senior game. With Bitty finally allowed back in the kitchen, Alexei’s trunk is filled with carefully-packed baked goods to bring back to the team in Providence. His soulmate was listening on and off to music again and Alexei echoed the songs back to him off his special playlist, just in case he was listening.

Alexei passes the time with Jack chatting about their upcoming game against the Oilers while the radio plays softly.

_“Just stand here with me—”_

Jack lunges for the radio but freezes with his hand on the dial.

“You okay, Zimmboni?” Alexei asks because Jack has never had such a visceral reaction to one of his playlists.

Jack hesitates a second before he settles for turning the volume down.

“How do you even know this song?” he asks, sounding a mix of exasperated and fond. “Literally no one likes this song, Tater.”

“My soulmate likes this song!” Alexei says in mock offense. “I can hear the music they listen to and they play this song a lot. Took me a long time to find.” It was actually a pain in the ass to find because the band existed for barely two years and never released a CD online. Alexei was only able to download the version on his phone from some defunct My Space page. He’s pretty sure it gave his laptop a virus.

“Oh,” Jack says. Alexei glances over at him but Jack is staring out the passenger window. “Do you know anything else about your soulmate?” he asks carefully.

Alexei shrugs. He and Jack are good friends. He trusts Jack. He knows the words on Jack's hip are lyrics to the song Bitty was singing when Jack realized he was in love with him, the words smudged because he'd been crying. Alexei teases Jack about how all he said back was “I’ll text you.” In only a year, Jack has become one of Alexei’s best friends. And part of him feels guilty for always going to Snowy with his problems when Alexei knows he trusts Jack just as much.

“I think he’s on the Aces,” Alexei says as he makes the turn off the highway towards Providence. “I hear _Sorry Not Sorry_ a lot this season, you know?” he adds with a small smile. “It might sound crazy but I’m think maybe I should find players’ houses. Show up with big boombox like 80s movie until I hear music back,” he teases but Alexei can’t hide how much he genuinely wants to find whoever’s out there for him.

“It’s Kent Parson,” Jack blurts.

Alexei slams on the brakes before he crashes into a car at the red light in front of them.

“What?”

“Kent loved this song. He played it nonstop for like two years. It’s some shitty band from his hometown that _no one else_ likes,” Jack rushes to explain. “He said he could hear his soulmate’s thoughts sometimes. And that they were Russian, learning English right before the draft. He tried talking back to you but you could never hear him.”

Alexei does the mental math. The time his soulmate stopped listening to music lines up with Jack’s overdose.

“It can’t be Parson, though,” Alexei says. “He had a concussion three years ago. But the music for the Aces games didn’t stop.”

“So, he would have had to figure out that you could hear the songs he heard, gotten all the goal songs for the teams the Aces played while he was injured, and lined them up to the game so you wouldn’t suspect anything?” Jack says. “I don’t know how to tell you this Alexei, but that kind of sounds like something he’d do.”

Alexei’s voice tightens. “They why he avoid me?”

“Kent… doesn’t really like the idea of soulmates,” Jack tries to explain but Alexei feels like that isn’t the whole story. “At least, he didn’t back in the Q. I don’t know where he stands with them now.”

Alexei’s head is spinning with ideas on how to contact Kent, just to see if it is true. The Falconers were playing the Aces at home in a week. Alexei could talk to him then.

_/x\\_

The Aces play with a fire lit under them.

Kent is pissed off and it shows in his game. Alexei’s seen less aggressive play in the conference final, let alone from a team who is coasting into playoffs. Parson argues with the ref over every penalty even though Stasiuk checks Alexei into the boards hard enough his head rattles in his helmet. Every line on the Aces is out for blood and it leaves Alexei (and the rest of the Falconer’s defense) scrambling.

The Aces outshoot them 54-24 and if anyone other than Snowy was in net, the score would have looked a lot worse. The Falconers are able to eke out a victory with Jack slamming in a goal into the net early in the third to put them ahead 3-2. The Aces fight to send the game into overtime but Snowy is a brick wall in goal.

“What the hell was that?” Poots asks when the game is finally over and the teams lets out a collective sigh of relief. “What the actual hell just happened.”

Alexei is exhausted. It had been a brutal game defensively with the Aces taking every shot they could and then immediately rushing the net for a rebound. Alexei could already tell Snowy was going to chew them out for leaving him out to dry and no one, least of all Alexei, could blame him.

Alexei tries to catch Kent after the game but the Aces leave the ice too quickly. Snowy wins the first star of the game and Alexei tries to hurry his way through the press so he can make it to the visiting locker room.

“Watch where you standing,” Stasiuk says, pushing past where Alexei is waiting by the door.

“You looking for someone, Mashkov?” Jeff Troy asks, exiting the locker room a second later and covering up whatever Stasiuk mutters under his breath. Stasiuk rolls his eyes next to him and makes a motion for Troy to hurry up.

“Is Parson here?” Alexei asks. “I need to talk to him.”

“Sorry man, I think he went back to the hotel already,” Troy says. “Give me your number and I’ll pass it along to him.”

Alexei gives Troy his phone number and Troy heads off but Stasiuk stays by the door. He looks Alexei up and down before stepping closer and for a moment Alexei thinks he’s going to have to fight him.

“Parse has… issues. Don’t fuck this up,” Stasiuk tells him, holding out a piece of paper for him. It’s the sleeve to their hotel key card and it has an address printed on the back. Alexei takes it and stares at it for long moment before looking back at Stasiuk. “Good luck.”

Alexei drives to the hotel on the card and sweet talks the woman at the desk- a young Russian girl in Providence on a work visa- until she gives him Parson’s room number in exchange for an autograph.

As he approaches the room, Alexei can hear Jack and Kent in a shouting match behind the door.

“You had no right to tell him!”

“He had a right to know he’s your soulmate, Kent. What were you going to do, huh?” Jack asks. Alexei isn’t sure what to do. He was planning on speaking to Kent alone but he doesn’t know if interrupting now would help anyone. “You can’t just pretend you don’t hear him and avoid him for the rest of your life.”

“Don’t come here and try to tell me you know what’s best for me.”

“Kent, just _talk to him._ He at least deserves an explanation! He’s a really good guy. Just give him a chance. It’s not going to be like me. Having a soulmate changes—”

“Contrary to popular belief, not everything in my life revolves around you, Jack.”

“Then what are you afraid of? That it’ll be like your parents again? And he’ll—”

“Oh, _fuck you,_ Jack. You think just because you met your little soulmate you know how to have a relationship that doesn’t end on a bathroom floor? Get the fuck out of my room!”

“You push everyone in your life away—"

“You really want to try and play that card, Jack?”

“This isn’t about us, Kent! This is about you _deliberately_ making choices--”

Alexei stood there frozen as the hotel door yanks open and Jack is pushed out. Kent follows him to the door with every intention of slamming it behind Jack but is brought up short when he sees Alexei. Kent’s already changed from his game day suit into joggers and a t-shirt but his hair is a mess and his eyes are red and puffy.

Across the hall, a door opens and Jeff Troy leans against the frame. “Is there a problem out here, Parser?”

“These guys are just leaving,” Kent says, narrowing his eyes at the two of them. “Stay away from me, Zimmermann. That goes for you too, Mashkov. I’m not interested.”

He slams the door in his face before Alexei can even say a word in his own defense.

They head back down to the lobby- Jack fuming and Alexei in shock.

_/x\\_

Alexei doesn’t hear much through the bond after the confrontation in the hallway. In addition to slamming the door in his face, Parson seems to being trying to also slam the door in his head.

Alexei still picks up snippets of music from him but he can tell it’s nothing Kent’s listening to intentionally and the connection always ends soon after. Part of him wonders if Kent’s just walking around Vegas with his hands over his ears.

For his part, Alexei does a little research on Kent. Of his three options, Alexei had considered Troy or Stasiuk much more likely than Parson, especially after the concussion, so he doesn’t actually know much about his life outside hockey.

There isn’t much information about his life before the league and Jack is tightlipped about whatever situation with his parents might make him reject the idea of soulmates. Luckily, there are plenty of videos from the Aces PR team and Kent has a few public social media profiles.

Alexei learns Parson is whip smart, with plenty of clever comebacks on the tip of his tongue. He’s always two questions ahead of an interviewer and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of hockey. As a guest on a YouTube hockey trivia show, Kent did better than most of the sports writers he was in a Stanley Cup quiz against. Alexei isn’t sure if Kent runs his own personal Instagram but he definitely runs his cat’s. Alexei’s favorite videos are of Kent’s attempts to take his cat hiking which always turn into him carrying her about halfway through.

Alexei still rolls his eyes at the way Kent smirks when he says “ _Your_ Las Vegas Aces,” but he can’t help being charmed when Kent rubs the back of his neck and admits the last book he read is _The Martian_ because “I’ve been on a little bit of a sci-fi kick.”

Alexei is spending a rainy Saturday morning on the couch trying to find a Russian copy of _The Martian_ while his stereo plays softly in the kitchen. He’s just starting the first chapter when his doorbell rings.

Kent Parson is standing on the other side of his threshold in a plaid shirt with an Aces snapback, hands at his sides like he’s not sure where they’re supposed to go.

“Jack Zimmermann was right about exactly one thing and it’s that you deserve an explanation,” Kent says, lifting his head to look Alexei in the eye. He’s trying to look casual but Alexei can see the unease in the way he looks behind Alexei to make sure he’s alone.

“Do you want to come in for cup of coffee?” Alexei asks and Kent blinks at him.

“Uh, yeah. I could do coffee.”

Kent steps into Alexei’s three-bedroom house like he’s waiting for an ambush but he follows Alexei back to his kitchen. Alexei has an eclectic collection of mugs and hands Kent one with constellations on the side. Alexei sits down with him at his rarely used kitchen island and Kent watches his cup change color as it warms up.

“So. An explanation,” Kent says, looking back to Alexei. “We’re soulmates.”

Kent waits a moment so Alexei nods in confirmation. “Yes. I hear your music. Sometimes.” He can hear the quiet music from his speaker being relayed to him through Kent as they sit together.

“And I can hear your thoughts. Sometimes,” Kent confirms. Alexei sips his coffee while Kent tries to piece together whatever he’s come to say. “With the songs it’s mostly lyrics, right?”

Alexie nods. Kent must hear them echoed back in his head when Alexei thinks of him. It would explain how he knew how to avoid Alexei for so long and matches what Jack told him in the car. “Sometimes I understand the feeling with the music too. I can tell if you like something or if you don’t. It’s easy to tell if you’re paying attention to what you hear. I know you like _Waking Up in Vegas_ more than _Sorry Not Sorry._ ”

“It’s an asymmetric bond,” Kent continues. Alexei tries not to worry about the way he says it, like there’s something wrong with them as soulmates just because they don’t hear each other the same way. “When I hear your thoughts, it’s mostly in Russian, but I don’t need to speak it to understand what you mean. Ever since I was a kid, I could tell what you were thinking about. It got easier with the English but I don’t need it to know what kind of guy you are.”

“What kind of guy am I?” Alexei asks. Kent doesn’t sound angry at him but his tone doesn’t sound promising.

“You’re a good guy,” Kent says, surprisingly earnest. “You’re a really good guy. But you’re stuck on this idea that we’re supposed to be together and I’m hear to tell you that isn’t going to happen.”

“You’re breaking up with me? We not even have one date,” Alexei teases lightly but his concern grows.

Kent sighs in frustration. “Alexei, I’ve heard you voice in my head since I was a kid. I probably know you better than anyone in the world, including yourself. But you don’t know anything about me.”

“Because you hide—”

“Having a soul bond is not enough,” Kent says, setting his mug down on the counter firmly. He stands and Alexei is briefly worried he’s going to leave but Kent just paces instead. “I’ve seen what it can do to two people. My parents had a soul bond and they loved each other, but they just _could not stop_ hurting each other.”

Kent stops and looks at Alexei. “They’d fight. One of them would leave and it would tear them both apart, so they’d come back but things wouldn’t be better. They’d end up fighting again and leaving again. Nothing would keep them together, not love or the bond or their kids, but they were soulmates so they just kept trying to make it work. And they shouldn’t have been together! What’s the point of being with someone who just makes you miserable?”

It’s clear this isn’t something Kent’s told many people, if anyone. Kent’s voice is raw when he continues. “I know you, Alexei. I know how excited you were to hear me in Vegas the first time. But have you ever thought about how a relationship between us would even work? I’m never leaving the Aces. I helped build that team and I love it. And you have a life in Providence, friends here. It wouldn’t be fair for me to ask you to leave it all behind. And I won’t make you wait until the offseason and have a real relationship just two months of the year.”

Alexei stands in front of Kent and he can see Kent’s so scared his shoulders are shaking, but he stares up at Alexei with his jaw set and his eyes determined. He’s so beautiful and in that moment, Alexei understands how much it must have hurt Kent’s parents to watch each other leave.

Alexei chooses his next words very carefully.

“You know me,” Alexei says. Kent nods once, never breaking eye contact. “If you know me, better than I know myself, then I trust you. If—” Alexei’s voice cracks and he has to clear his throat before he can continue. “If you think I make you miserable… I don’t want to trap you.”

Kent’s eyes look watery at the edges and Alexei feels like every word he says is hollowing out his chest but he forces himself to keep going. “I want you to be happy, Kent. We can do long distance. We both have money for travel. But if …you don’t want me… then is hard…is _very_ hard… but I understand.”

Kent stares at him for a second. Alexei can feel his heart breaking and he hopes Kent doesn’t have to feel it over the bond.

Kent grabs him by the front of his shirt and crushes Alexei into an embrace.

“How could I not want you,” he asks Alexei, holding him tightly. “How could I know you and not love you?” he asks, throat tight. Alexei thinks he might be crying. They both might be crying.

“Then let me get to know you,” Alexei pleads, arms around Kent’s shoulders. “We don’t have to do all at once. You stay in Las Vegas; I stay in Providence. Maybe distance good because it keeps us from moving too fast. You’ll have time to see I’m serious. That I don’t want to hurt you,” Alexei promises and Kent keeps his grip on him tight.

Alexei knows Kent isn’t sure, he can see it in his face. All his life, ever since he’d heard the first song, it’s felt like Alexei’s been reaching out. And for the first time, he feels something reach back.

“I still might mess it all up,” Kent says when he has the words. “Bonded of not, I might mess it up.”

“I might mess up too,” Alexei admits. Whatever is between them feels new and fragile but Alexei believes it may one day grow strong. “But if you want to try, I want to try.”

“Okay. We’ll try.” Kent lays his head on Alexei’s shoulder and Alexei keeps his arms securely around him.

On his little kitchen radio, the song switches and Alexei hears it echo back clearly in his head as he and Kent sway gently in his kitchen.

_“Just stand here with me  
And love me on purpose…”_

**Author's Note:**

> Did someone order ANOTHER Kent/Alexei soulmate get together? One day I'll get around to writing that Established Relationship fic...
> 
> If you're interested in any of the stuff that didn't make it into the fic (Aces goal songs, Kent's Bardown Quiz, Alexei's soulmate playlist- bops only version), please leave a comment! I love to write in extra tidbits in my replies.


End file.
